You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
There's some fashion mental gymnastics in my set up - and bear in mind I'm pissing about in Open, not fighting for podiums in the higher events like some...
shoes - to acheive my comfy/most powerful pedalling position (verified moderately scientifically on the watt-bike), and also comortable for tech/descending; I need my cleats in quite a rearward position. This has meant I'm in more "trail" shoes rather than a full xc slipper style shoe, which hurts my calf/achillies.
And I cant face combining said shoe, with lycra shorts (or a skin suit) in public where there will be photo evidence. So its close fitting, but still loose, shorts for me.*
Club top, which is either a pretty tight short sleeve, or a more relaxed fit long sleeve in the colder months.
*muddy winter races, I've tried trousers too. keeps the water out of the shoes/socks for which I am more than happy to pay the weight penalty but can get warm (duh). And you are obviously committed unlike leg warmers which I guess you could drop to your ankles if you needed to.
I currently wear whatever is comfortable, not too baggy and lightish. Older set of Morvelo rise and descend shorts over le col bibs with a morvelo short sleeve T recently. This weekend I was also rocking shin guards as the day before I ripped the back of my right calf to shreds on the pedal pins when my chain snapped :?. Flat's and flat shoes all the way (though this weekend trying to walk let alone run on the mud was interesting). When the club kit shop opens will probably get a club top and switch to that. Not going to bother with club bibs as baggies will be staying.
The London Beastway series starts tonight. After some unexplained fatigue I'm going for the experience to see if my legs can remain above Z2 after an easy 7 days, which may morph into 10 days deepening on tonight's outcome. I'll be lining up at the back so as not to get in the way.
Jnr now U14 starts 10 mins behind me for a 50 mins race, I wonder if I can lap him like an evil Dad.... 😀
Remember to enjoy yourself!
I did. Had a great time coming 6th of 10 GC'vs with 2 DNF's with 249w NP at 72.5Kg for 56 mins. 45 seconds away from 5th. Hard work and I've definitely lost power but also found myself backing off on some sections - I think this is many years of Marathon / 12hr riding in my head wants me to back of to sub threshold on the climbs, whereas obvs for XCO I need to change down and power up them.
Things to put into effect next week, but yeah sunny, dry and enjoyable grass roots fun.
Well done @Kryton57 😀
Is the ‘lost’ power not just because of the nature of short course XC? It’s incredibly hard to keep a good average power when you also have to coast a lot. Or are you comparing v similar races in the past?
I know when I’m trying to do long intervals out in the roads that it’s so frustrating to have one junction undo the past 8 miles of riding as 3 watts suddenly vanish off your average in a moment 🤣
I sometime run ‘no-zero’ averaging to better reflect the effort I’m actually putting through the pedals but interestingly, it’s usually very close to NP so I stopped bothering and just use that instead.
I run non zero power on my HU also, it showed average 277w “on” power which over the duration was about 43mins on the gas, that’s 3.8wkg average.
I lost power after my x 3 viral chest infections over 8 weeks Oct to Dec ‘22, the. Recently I’ve had the fatigue issue caused - I think - after a throat infection moved to my ear which seems to be a slow recovery*, but as shown here I appear to be coming out of it. A few more days easy efforts are prescribed before next weeks race, it’s a 9 week series.
This isn’t my forte, and I’ve trained for 4 years previous for long endurance so am coming back to the format.
Just pleased to enjoy a race and finish it tbh. I should also add that Jnr finished 2nd in Youth for his first race of the year.
*There is some conjecture that this could have been the new Covid strain which causes a lasting fatigue, although I tested negative using the original test kits from ‘21
Nice. Sounds like a good race. Well done to junior as well.
Cool, all sounds positive to me 😃
Well done jnr too 💪🏻🎉
Anybody race at the national xc at the Matterley basin over the weekend?
The course conditions at the 9am races sunday morning were challenging to say the least. However this worked in my favour as alot of guys didn't race and I managed 9th in the grand vets. Bl@@dy over the moon with that, especially as I had very low expectations.
Glad you enjoyed it @Kryton57 !
I saw Jack C's R2 strava- "2hrs cleaning" sounds rather less dry than R1..
Son No.1 and I took the long trip down to Rhonda for the 2nd round of the Welsh XC series at Dare Valley Bike Park this weekend, we went down on Saturday afternoon as it's a 3.5 hour drive, which turned into over 4 hours due to the road works on the A470 over the Brecons, but its a nice drive with cracking scenery.
[img] 
[/img]
While I set up camp he went off with a group of mates and spent a couple of hours doing practice laps on his course and the U14 one and then bombing round the pump track.
[img] 
[/img]
On Sunday he went in the U12 race in the morning and it was one for the climbers with a big climb up the fire road (haul road for the up-lift) cutting onto the grass and the some woody single track and a fast as you like descent on the bike park trails, he absolutely loved it and rode really well to take 7th place and 1st placed first year.
[img] 
[/img]
In the afternoon I went in the vets race and it was an absolute pig of a nearly 9 minute (for me) climb, cutting off an on the up-lift road onto the draggiest grass in the world and in & out of the woods until you were at the very top of the bike park where the fun began with a some techy woody single tack, a couple of little stream crossings and super fast flowing blue graded bike park descents all the way to the bottom, despite the suffering I managed to drag my sorry carcass round to 12th placed Vet, so can't complain.
[img] 
[/img]
Next up is the first round of the Manchester MidWeek series, which will hopefully be a lot less hilly.
So who was out racing today?
I did the Southern XC reading open race. Slightly better finish again in 12th (oddly said 11th immediately after the finish). Had a really good 3 lap battle (then chat at the end) with 13th place. We traded position a good number of times before I managed to put some slower riders between us just before a single-track section. Very much enjoyed the course despite the lack of elevation change, well other than the choppy field edges.
I won't be able to make race 4 so now looking for some other closeish events to enter.
I was there but I wouldn't call it racing. Suffering some unknown power loss currently so the best I can do is ride around at the back.
There's a lot of people at that event that need to learn some manners. The amount of putting people in trees and launching from behind down the inside of corners without warning was ridiculous today, not to mention that "get out of the ****ing way" isn't how the rules are played - yes you Mr White shirt. We've all got jobs to go to tomorrow and bike parts aren't getting any cheaper.
Maybe @Adam_Buckland a note of instruction / strong reminder from the comms is need for the June round.
I did the Cannock Spring Classic (fun category). First race since 2019 (when I crashed on nearly the same course). Great weather and the trails were mostly dry. Really enjoyed it. Partly went along to support my friend's kids but glad I made the effort to race too.
Lined up in the back half at the start as I expected to be one of the slower ones. However, I was overtaking people (.. or getting stuck) for the first two laps. Did B lines on lap 1 and subsequently the main A (nearly stacked the first time- looking forward to the photo of that!). Wore HRM and rode a nice even pace. Finished 8th I think.
It was the first time pushing hard with my new Procaliber. Fork (Recon Gold), which had seemed fine on Cannock reds at gentle pace was blowing through the whole travel a little easily. Otherwise it was good. I'll upgrade fork eventually.
I have entered National XC R5 (again at Cannock) in July. Hoping to do a few others too.
I had a cracking at the southern xc. Should I have raced? Probably not with my current asthma challenges. But I hoped to enjoy the riding and weather. I managed a front row grid which was nice and saved my race tbh, I couldn't maintain the pace through the start field and slid back to 10th ish and spent the next 1-2 laps trying to recover. In the end I pulled myself back to a sprint finish for 6th, which I won. No part of me is disappointed, I absolutely tore my legs off today and feel battered from it. I'm really hoping for some good health and training now. The course was typical Checkendon, tight corners, hard to pass and soo dam slippy!
Great work to everyone who got out there and raced.
Congratulations on your top ten finish @ernie. I was holding 9th for most of my race but was out sprinted on the last few metres by two stronger guys I had been trying to fend off for the last couple of laps. I was slightly stronger than them in the single track but really struggled to keep a decent pace on the open bits around the fields. There seemed to be alot of sprint finishing going on.
Never raced there before and enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to.
And it was sunny and dry. Hurrah!!
Not this weekend but I did the first round of the Midweek Madness Manchester XC series at Wythenshaw Park on Wednesday, considering its a town park the course was pretty good, a couple of sections of actual man made mini features like rollers, berms and drops including one corner so tight and off camber it caused numerous people to fall off, I won't say crash as you couldn't go fast enough on that bit to actually crash, it was however flat as a pancake which in current trim suits me down to the ground 🙂
So 1hr 5mins of total thrash 'fest with 1hr 3mins of it spent at threshold, and an average speed of nearly 25kph I managed to get myself to 4th in Vets, so really can't grumble at that!
I’ve really fallen off the wagon. With the nice weather I’ve given up on zwift and ‘training’, and just been riding for fun.
this weekend I passed up the last southern xc, in favour of going to BPW on my own (I got the last ticket)
ironic because earlier in the year I passed up going to bpw with mates, so I could race southern xc.
I see the SW series have had to cancel an event for low numbers 🙁
I hope others are still enjoying getting between the tape.
I was at the SXC race but only support daughter in the u12s. Had both children and the dog so no racing for me. I need to find some events to enter but they seem rather thin on the ground.
Last couple of races have been a bit of a tale of two halves for me, on Wednesday last week I did the 3rd round of the MMW series up at Lee Quarry, it was hot, dusty, fast and awesome, legs felt ace, race went well bar being in too high a gear on the steep loose ramp on the first lap and nearly falling off backwards, but 12th placed Vet and 22nd overall in "Racer" read Open (Elite, Expert, Sport & Junior) category coupled with a cracking photo it was a good evening.
[img] 
[/img]
Yesterday No.1 son and I travelled down to the Forest of Dean for the 3rd round of the Welsh National XC series encompassing the Southern area XC champs, so the fields were pretty big and strong; and boy was it hot and humid, the course was brilliant for the adults and the U12 course for the boy was probably the best XC type course I've seen for kids. He went really well as a first year U12, ending up in 10th place a little lower than usual, but with the added southern boys vying for their title its a good result.
[img] 
[/img]
I however had a mare, just had nothing in the legs had a crap first lap and got progressively slower as the race went on with sweat pouring out of me and doing my best not to wrap myself round the many many trees, but as I said the course was brilliant with top notch descents and one absolute sod of a climb at nearly 1km long and up to 25% gradient that nearly killed me, I did still manage to come home in the top 20, just, in 19th place, which is always the aim, but man it hurt.
[img] 
[/img]